brought tears to his eyes, that he had long loved a slave girl whom he wished to marry. Her master, however, objected, not wishing his slaves to intermarry with freed persons. The black attributed his refusal to another and a different cause, and trembled for the girl's virtue. He represented that the master was in debt, and purposed selling his property, and removing west of the Mississippi. In this contingency, William's nurse wished to accompany them, though he should leave behind an aged and infirm mother, who relied entirely upon his labour for support.

Deeply moved by this simple narrative, my brother formed a resolution. On the following day he visited the girl's master, and, after a long interview, the particulars of which never transpired, he succeeded in not only procuring his consent to the union, but also to his parting with the ownership of the beautiful slave. By some arrangement, into which the freedman was made a party, the girl passed to her lover, or in other words, from the bonds of slavery to those of conjugal life. When this affair was settled, and the particulars communicated to the grateful black, he was overwhelmed, and bewildered at his good fortune. Soon he burst into a paroxysm of tears, and throwing himself upon his knees, in extravagant terms thanked his generous benefactor, commending him to the favour of Heaven.

William Peyton remained long enough in Florida to see the lovers married. The night before leaving they came to him with the aged mother, their friends

and relatives, to make a last demonstration of their gratitude, bringing fruits and flowers as an offering, and singing songs of thanks and praise. When he left, he was surrounded by a crowd of grateful Africans, deeply moved with grief and frantic in their gestures, and in their wild language of praise and thanks.

This affecting incident of his travels, which was not mentioned on his return, many years later, came to the knowledge of the author, through a communication from a Floridian, who was in Virginia on a summer tour.

On his return from these well employed travels, he became the general object of esteem and attention in his own county, not only on account of his noble character, but by the elegance of his manners, the comeliness of his person, and the delights of his conversation. His reappearance at the bar was now anxiously awaited by his friends, many of whom supposed he would equal, if not surpass, our learned father as a pleader and an advocate. His first appearance before a jury, gave the best hopes of his abilities, and inspired his friends with fresh zeal for his continuance at the bar. He soon became conspicuous for the analytical powers of his mind, for the accuracy of his legal knowledge, the dexterity of his handling of an opponent and the fervour of his eloquence. Business came in rapidly and his success, had not his failing health prevented, must have equalled any expectations formed of him by his

most sanguine friends. Always in delicate health, he suffered periodically from vertigo and severe pains in the head, and after these paroxysms was subject to long periods of weariness. At the end of two years, therefore, upon the advice of a medical man, he determined to give up the profession, and to retire upon his estate, in order to give himself up to less exhausting and more congenial pursuits. Thus it is that he is not famous in the legal annals of Virginia; that he produced no great work in his retirement. In addition to his ill-health, which impaired his energies, he wanted ambition, selfassertion-was extremely placable, and saw other and less worthy men advance and pass him, without any effort or regret. Had his health been vigorous, had he been arrogant, grasping, and faithless, and had he been ready to betray or blacken those with whom he sat at meat, he would have reached the highest political honours and distinctions, and must have passed many men, who in the course of his life passed him. But without selling his soul for a mess of pottage, had he been more zealous for the promotion of his interest, more selfish, more conscious of his power and of the place nature intended him to occupy, he would have acted a great part in life and remained a noted character in history. A man, however, cannot be what he would, if circumstances do not permit it.

It may not be out of place to anticipate events at this point and to relate the following interesting occurrence which took place on his abandonment of the wig and

gown. It had not been customary with him to receive his fees, while at the bar, in money, but turning a kind ear to the complaints of clients, he had satisfied himself, following in this the advice of my father, with simply taking their I.O.U.'s. These he could collect if he required the money, and if not, it was evident he would not inconvenience his debtors. Previously to the last term of the superior courts which he attended, he addressed a letter to each of his debtors, informing them of his wish to meet them at the next court, and asking them, if possible, not to disappoint him.

What occured when he reached Huntersville, where the superior court of Pocahontas county was held, will give the reader an idea of what took place everywhere in the circuit. His clients received these notices with various feelings. They were anxious-restless. Those who owed him large sums were filled with apprehension. They could but suppose from the brief, almost curt, note they had received, that immediate payment of their accounts would be demanded. Something akin to a money panic prevailed at the time in the country-there was great financial embarrassment, and the stoutest men quailed as they looked forward to the ruin in which all industrial interests were likely to be involved. The dread, therefore, with which his debtors assembled for his appearance at Huntersville, may be better imagined than described. Many said it was impossible such a man could think of pressing them for his claims at such a moment, or

indeed, at any time. Others, said he, might be in trouble, and thus have no alternative. A third party protested that the human heart was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and while they never could have believed him capable of such oppression, they feared they had mistaken his nature. Still a fourth set came forward to cheer the despondent, declaring they would never believe him capable of wrong and injustice, (and it would be both to demand immediate payment of these notes, during a period of financial distress) until it could be made to appear that black was white and white black.

On the first day of the term, a day which finally came, great crowds assembled (as is usual in Virginia on assize days) at Huntersville. William Peyton was already in his lodgings, where his clients began to drop in. When all had arrived they were invited to a large room, in the centre of which stood a censer filled with burning coals. Shaking hands with his old friends and making a few inquiries after their families, he advanced to the head of the table, and, in a short address, informed them of his continued ill health and of his purpose to retire from the bar. He then took from a drawer a tin box containing their bonds. A shudder passed through the frame of many a poor fellow, as he recognised the fatal bills to which his hand and seal were affixed. My brother then remarked that the notes which he took from the box had been given for his professional services, while the truth was simply this, that he had rendered them little or no service what

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